REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — A recent study reveals that planet Gas giants can have deadly impacts, preventing the possibility of life on Earth-like planets solar system other. These giant planets tend to displace smaller planets from their orbits and disrupt their climates.
Although Jupiter, the giant planet in our solar system, plays an important protective role by protecting Earth from comets and asteroids that might hit it, giant planets in other solar systems do not always provide similar protection to smaller planets nearby. A paper published in the Astronomical Journal reveals how the gravitational pull of giant planets in nearby star systems can cause Earth-like planets to fall out of the “habitable zone.”
This zone is the distance from a star that allows liquid water to exist on the planet’s surface, an important condition for life. This research takes the example of the HD 141399 star system which has four giant planet which is farther from its star, similar to our solar system.
An astrophysicist from UC Riverside, Stephen Kane ran computer simulations to understand the impact of the four giant planets. The results show that there are only a few areas where small planets like Earth can remain in stable orbits without being affected by the gravitational pull of giant planets.
“It’s as if they have four Jupiters acting like wrecking balls, destroying everything,” Kane was reported as saying PHYS.orgWednesday (1/11/2023).
However, another related paper reveals that it is not only giant planets that can disrupt the habitable zone. A large planet in the middle of the habitable zone could cause a similar impact. This research observes the GJ 357 star system which is located about 30 light years from Earth.
Previous research showed that the planet in this system, GJ 357 d, is in the habitable zone and has a mass about six times that of Earth. However, recent studies suggest that its mass may be greater, making it unsuitable for supporting life as we know it.
This discovery reminds us of the rarity of conditions that support life in the universe. While we can be thankful for a solar system configuration that allows life on Earth, this study also shows that we should be careful about assuming planets in the habitable zone can automatically support life.
“Our work gives us more reasons to be grateful for the particular planetary configurations we have in our solar system,” Kane said.
2023-11-01 07:19:26
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